London Bombing Day of Mourning from the Sistine Chapel, July 8, 2005, Alaina Chamberlain
From MemoryArchive
Who: Alaina Chamberlain What: London Bombing Day of Mourning from the Sistine Chapel When: July 8, 2005 Where: Vatican City
I, along with my family and some friends, had been weaving through a line to the entrance of the Sistine Chapel for about 4 hours. We entered about to 5 minutes before the bells were set to toll. Though you are supposed to be completely silent once inside the chapel, there was a low hum of people pointing things out to their friends. After the bells, an announcement came on asking everyone to observe 2 minutes of silence for the victims of the London Bombing. The whole chapel filled with over 300 people fell completely silent. I live in NYC right off of the strip where the airplanes land and on 9/11 I felt the same silence. After the silence people around me began to pray. Apparently everyone on the streets had stopped as well and all of the cars had pulled over. I will always associate that silence with disaster.
